Ottershagen

About the SongJust before christmas 2009 I read the book «Det angår også deg» (This also concerns you» about Herman Sachnowitz (1921-1978) from Larvik,Norway.  In 1943 all of the Sachnowitz family  were arrested by the Norwegian Statspoliti (State police) who were working for Nazi Germany. They were sent with the ship Donau to Stettin and then to Auschwitz. Only Herman would return to Larvik after the war. The rest of  the family was killed in Auschwitz. This song is my attempt at understading what it is like coming home when none of your family made it.

Ghost

As I walk thorugh the doorway

of my parents house
I hear the voice of my brothersall their dreams and hope
the advice of my father
you know he always was right
I heal the wounds of my conscience
by remembering their lives

by remembering their lives

And you are in the backyard
I hear your sound voice
playing games with your sisters
or washing some clothes
I wish you could hear me
and just turn around
run into my arms
feel how much you were loved
Now this house is empty
and you’re just a ghost
our dearest belongings
confiscated and sold
three years since they sent us
via Stettin by boat
I was just a child then
now I am older than old
And all through my horrors
you kept me alive
it was your face I imagined
in the death camps at night
as I see your ashes
blow with the wind
I take a deep breath
to keep you within
my heart